Catching Life by the Throat
By Josephine Hart
256 pages. Norton.

Allow yourself this one addiction: a poem a day—maybe even two. Throughout the month of April, Knopf will happily pitch a bit of verse into your in-box (sign up for Poem-a-Day at aaknopf.com/poetry); or you can reach for Catching Life by the Throat (Norton), Josephine Hart's intoxicating anthology of poems by the likes of Auden, Moore, Larkin, and Yeats, recorded by noted actors at the British Library and presented to the thirsty reader on the book's accompanying CD. Listen to Ralph Fiennes reading Auden if you need a quick hit of bliss.